This publication is the second volume in the series “starfruit publications”, which presents unusual forms of cooperation between contemporary authors and artists. “Reise nach Osten” (Journey to the East) is the coproduction of the acclaimed Czech documentary photographer Karel Cudlin and Jáchym Topol, the most important present-day Czech author, whose novels are published in Germany by Suhrkamp. Cudlin’s poignant black-and-white photographs, from Poland, the Ukraine, White Russia, Moldova, the Volga and from Mongolia, show people, situations and places that, seen even from the Czech Republic lie to the east. His pictures take the viewer into an alien world, they tell of the domination of communism, of archaic landscapes, of poverty and hardship, but also of strength and social change, of hidden reserves of humanity. Jáchym Topol is the “voice” of the photographer in this book, his texts, as precise as they are poetic, tell the stories behind Cudlin’s images, leading the reader along the paths of language into a world that soon, perhaps, will no longer be visible.